Zihtaxy  of t:he  t:heolo0f  cal  Seminary 

PRINCETON  '.    NEW  JERSEY 

PRESENTED  BY 

A.    G.    Cameron,  Ph.D. 


^^;© 


A   SERMON 


UKUVEREI)    BEFORE    THE 


FOEEIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 


NEW-YORK   AND   BROOKLYN, 


ON^    S^BBA.TII    EVENINGS,    NOVEMiBER   3   and   lO, 


/ 
HENRY  WARD  'BEECHER, 

r  A  S  T  ()  K   or   THE   PLYMOUTH   CHURCH,   BROOKLYN, 


WITH  REPORTS  BY  CORRESPOXDIXG  SECRETARY  AND  TREASURER 


■yublislicb  bn  the  ^ocictn. 


NEW-YORK : 

ALMOX    MERWIX.    BIBLE    HOUSE,    ASTOR    PLACE. 
1862. 


SERMON. 


Mark  1G:15. 

"Axi>  he  said  unto  them,  Go  ye  into  all  the  -world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature." 

The  spirit  of  tlie  Master,  tlie  nature  of  tlie  truths 
which  he  taught,  the  instructions  which  he  gave,  from 
the  very  beginning  of  his  ministry ;  the  final  injunc- 
tions to  his  apostles,  and  their  commission,  all  clearly 
show  that  Jesus  came  on  no  personal  errand,  to  oj^eu 
no  provincial  school,  to  establish  no  national  religion, 
but  to  declare  a  religion  radical,  penetrative,  recon- 
structive, universal,  and  ever-enduring.  These  are  the 
peculiarities  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  is  radical.  It 
is  penetrative.  It  is  revolutionary  and  reconstructive 
It  is  universal.     It  is  everlasting. 

1.  It  IS  RADICAL  in  its  estimate  of  human  character 
and  the  changes  to  be  wrought  upon  it,  and  in  its 
whole  method  of  treatment.  In  the  contemplation 
of  the  Grospel,  there  is  not  a  just  man  on  earth. 
All  men  need  forgiveness,  and  a  new  spiritual  life.  It 
is  not  taught  that  there  are  no  relative  excellencies. 
All  are  not  heathen.  All  are  not  vicious.  Nor  are  all 
alike  evil.  But  there  are  none  that  answer  the  end  of 
their  creation,  or  conform  to  the  law  of  their  being. 


The  faculties  of  tlie  liuman  mind,  as  divinely  con- 
ceived, are  entii'ely  admirable.  It  is  tlie  administration 
of  tliem  that  is  sinful.  The  use  to  which  these  facul- 
ties are  put  in  each  individual  of  the  whole  race,  vio- 
lates the  law  of  love  and  of  obedience  toward  God, 
puts  a  man  at  disagreement  with  himself,  brings  him 
into  selfish  collision  with  his  fellow-men,  draws  him 
from  the  sj)iritual  toward  the  material,  moves  him 
down  from  his  proper  rank  and  degree  in  the  order 
of  creation,  defeats  the  divine  j)urpose  of  happiness, 
and  works  discontent  and  sorrow  and  suffering  in  all 
conceivable  degrees.  Although  this  takes  place  in  an 
infinite  variety  of  degrees  in  different  men,  it  so  takes 
place  in  all  as  to  justify  the  declaration  that  there  is 
no  man  living  that  sins  not,  and  that  has  not  been 
depraved  by  sinning.  And  such  has  been  the  long 
continuance  of  this  sinfulness,  such  the  hereditary  in- 
fluences, the  bad  training,  the  evil  example,  that  the 
whole  mind  is  disturbed,  unbalanced,  out  of  harmony 
with  itself,  with  its  fellows,  and  with  its  circumstances. 
Its  appetites  and  its  passions  have  the  mastery.  They 
are  not  obedient  either  to  reason  or  to  the  moral  sen- 
timents. The  very  conceptions  of  love,  of  justice,  of 
truth,  are  imperfect ;  but  imperfect  as  they  are,  they 
far  transcend  the  power  of  man  to  realize  them  in 
practice.  The  human  race  is  not,  after  six  thousand 
years,  even  civilized.  A  dreadful  and  innumerable 
majority  live  under  the  habitual  control  of  their  ani- 
mal nature.  Nor  has  it  ever  been  better  than  now. 
The  history  of  the  race,  for  six  thousand  years,  is  a 
record  of  aggressions  and  wrongs,  of  crimes  and  wars, 
of  undescribed  and  indescribable  evils.  The  morning 
stars  are  said  to  have  sung  for  joy  when  the  earth  was 
born.  Since  that  day,  there  has  not  been  an  hour  when 
tears  and  sighs  would  not  have  been  a  fitter  accompa- 


niment.  Let  otlier  men  adjust  a  nomenclature  to  tliese 
facts.  Let  men  differ  in  their  philosophies  and  theo- 
ries ;  none  can  deny  the  great  practical  truth  that  men 
are  so  depraved  that  they  need  to  be  born  again.  Such 
re-creation  must  proceed  from  divine  power.  There  is 
no  self- developing  remedy  from  within.  Nature  stands 
dumb  and  powerless.  If  men  are  to  be  healed,  and 
trained,  and  perfected,  the  same  power  that  created 
must  re-create. 

For  character  so  radically  wrong,  the  Christian  relig- 
ion proposes  a  change  the  most  utter  and  thorough 
which  the  mind  can  conceive.  It  seeks  to  penetrate 
the  soul  by  the  divine  Spirit ;  to  touch  the  springs  of 
action,  of  thought,  of  feeling,  and  of  will,  by  the  very 
power  of  God's  own  mind. 

Christianity  did  not  so  much  need  to  reveal  or  pro- 
claim man's  sin,  which  needed  no  proclamation,  as  to  heal 
it.  Christ  came  for  redemption.  Not  a  better  life  sim- 
ply was  demanded,  but  a  new  one,  upon  another  plan, 
with  new  aims,  with  other  emotions,  with  higher  in- 
spirations, and  with  more  effectual  and  continuous 
motives.  Christianity  grasps  the  whole  nature  of  the 
soul,  and  seeks  to  apply  the  remedy  at  the  very  foun- 
tain of  feeling,  of  choice,  and  of  reason. 

The  means  employed  are  equally  radical.  It  is  the 
power  of  God  that  is  to  change  and  sanctify.  The 
natural  world  was  designed,  undoubtedly,  to  exert  an 
influence,  and  a  moral  influence,  upon  man.  Society, 
and  its  institutions,  restrain  men  from  evil,  and  have  a 
limited  influence  for  good.  From  his  owai  fellows  man 
derives,  with  much  evil,  some  benefit.  Nor  are  his 
own  efforts  of  will  and  reason  without  a  partial  influ- 
ence for  good.  But  none  of  these,  nor  all  of  them, 
are  adequate  to  the  necessities  of  his  condition.  Com- 
pared with  the  work  to  be  done,  they  are  superficial 


and  transient.  It  is  tlie  power  of  God  exerted  directly 
and  personally  upon  every  soul,  tliat  inspires,  controls, 
and  sanctifies.  "We  are  taught  tliat  God  acts  upon  the 
soul,  through  the  great  primal  revelation  in  nature,  and . 
through  his  glorious  word,  and  through  the  events  of 
his  providence.  But  it  is  a  direct  and  efficacious  influ- 
ence of  the  divine  power  upon  the  human  soul,  that  is 
taught  in  God's  word  as  the  highest  and  characteris- 
tic method  of  divine  activity  in  human  regeneration. 
Though  a  man  may  not  enter  again  his  mother's  womb 
and  be  born,  it  may  almost  be  said  that  he  enters  again 
the  heart  of  God,  and  issiffes  thence  re-created. 

Thus  the  Christian  faith  is  radical  in  its  reformation 
of  human  character;  radical  in  demanding  the  very 
highest  type  of  spiritual  excellence  ;  radical  in  taking 
hold  of  the  springs  of  action  which  lie  in  the  inmost 
center  of  the  soul ;  radical  in  bringing  to  bear  upon 
life,  not  only  the  ordinary  influences  of  morality,  but 
the  j)ower  of  the  divine  nature  itself. 

2.  It  is  penetrative.  "The  words  which  I  speak 
unto  you  (they)  are  spirit,  and  (they)  are  life."  The 
Christian  religion  admits  of  formulas  of  doctrine,  it  has 
intellectual  and  philosophical  elements,  its  precepts  and 
moralities,  its  history,  and  duties.  In  all  these  it  in- 
finitely surpasses  any  other  religious  system  of  the 
world.  But  that  which  is  peculiar  to  it  is,  that,  while 
it  employs  the  instrument  of  words  and  doctrines,  it  has 
the  power  of  conveying  an  ineffable  spirit.  It  propa- 
gates itself  by  the  contact  of  heart  with  heart,  of  spirit 
with  spirit,  more  than  by  intellectual  forces.  It  is  the 
only  religion  which,  including  and  using  every  legiti- 
mate influence  that  belongs  to  ordinary  teaching,  de- 
pends characteristically  upon  the  foi'ce  which  the  soul 
has  upon  the  soul.  It  was  the  divine  life  streaming 
forth  from  Christ  that  made  him  the  teacher  that  he 


was,  speaking  as  never  man  spoke.  It  was  not  merely 
the  words  and  tlieir  meanings,  bnt  tkat  subtle  power 
behind  the  words,  which  made  truth  omnipotent.  It 
was  this,  too,  when  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  upon  the 
Apostles,  at  the  day  of  Pentecost,  that  gave  them  power 
to  sway  men  as  winds  sway  forests  when  they  blow 
upon  them. 

In  every  age,  since  the  Apostles'  day,  there  has  been 
a  power  in  Christian  truth-speaking  which  could  not  be 
accounted  for  or  measured  by  the  ordinary  efficiency 
of  words  or  arguments.  As  God  reaches  forth  and 
touches  our  souls  by  his  own,  so,  in  their  degree,  when 
holy  men  are  filled  with  the  divine  Spirit,  there  is 
given  to  them  a  spirit-touch.  This  is  no  mysterious 
thing.  It  is  no  superstition.  Is  not  love  more  power- 
ful than  any  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  love  ?  Is  not 
radiant  hope  more  potent  than  any  analysis  of  hope  ? 
Are  not  faith  and  glowing  desires  and  impetuous  joys 
more  powerful  than  the  mere  ideas  of  these  things  can 
be  ?  Moral  sentiments  and  affections  are  more  power- 
ful than  the  symbols  of  affections  and  sentiments  can 
ever  be.  Life  is  more  than  any  philosophy  of  life. 
The  flaming  soul,  harmonized  to  love,  in  joyful  alle- 
giance with  God,  full  of  pure,  desires  and  gracious  affec- 
tions toward  men,  radiant  with  faith,  and  strong  in 
hope,  that  is  the  life-power  that  throbs  through  the 
words  spoken  to  men.  It  is  this  soul  ■  power,  and  not 
merely  the  Avords  of  truth,  that  give  to  Christianity  its 
peculiarity. 

It  is  this  that  is  the  key  of  many  of  the  seeming 
mysteries  of  teaching.  The  most  magnificent  structures 
of  thought,  wondrously  curious  illustrations,  poetical 
imaginations  of  entrancing  beauty,  musical  utterance, 
sweetness  of  words,  persuasiveness  of  manner,  have 
often  been   brought   to    bear  upon  the   human  heart 


without  great  effect,  or  any  permanent  benefit,  be- 
cause there  was  no  infusing  soul,  no  divine  influence 
and  power ;  wliile,  on  tlie  other  hand,  meager  state- 
ments, remarkable  simplicities,  seemingly  the  most  inad- 
equate and  powerless  of  all  presentations  of  truth  have 
seized  the  soul,  first  with  shakings  of  fear,  and  afterward 
with  a  divine  rapture,  that  has  led  men  to  declare  that 
they  were  caught  wdth  irresistible  influences.  There  is 
no  power  like  that  which  shines  and  burns  in  the  very 
life  of  every  man  who  rightly  speaks  the  truth.  Be- 
hind each  word  and  every  symbol  is  this  heart-force  of 
him  who  uses  it ;  and  beiiind  his  heart  is  the  soul  of 
Grod,  giving  both  to  the  word  and  to  the  speaker  some- 
thing of  his  own  glorious  energy. 

The  Christian  religion  is  superior  to  all  other  relig- 
ions in  the  ethical  ideas  it  unfolds,  in  the  aims  it  pro- 
pounds, and  in  the  results  it  seeks  to  accomplish ;  but 
these  are  differences  in  degrees  of  the  same  things. 
That  which  is  unique  is  the  soul-power  that  goes  with 
the  teaching.  The  Gospel  is  never  truly  taught,  nor 
can  be,  by  the  mere  enunciation  of  the  lips.  There 
must  be  a  fire,  a  subtle  spirit,  from  the  very  heart, 
which  shall  carry  a  sacred  infection  with  it.  Affec- 
tions are  a  common  language  to  all  mankind.  The 
words  by  which  we  describe  them  may  differ  in  a 
hundred  tongues;  the  thing  itself  is  understood  alike 
by  all  men,  speaking  in  whatsoever  tongue  they  may. 
And  so,  when  a  holy  man,  full  of  zeal,  sends  forth  the 
longings  of  his  heart,  then  again  is  seen  the  Pentecostal 
miracle,  and  every  one  hears  in  that  tongue  wherein  he 
was  born. 

3.  Christianity  is  eevoltjtionaey  and  eecon- 
STRUCTrvE.  "  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  can  not 
see  the  kingdom  of  God."  Blessed  utterance  !  This 
is  not  alone  a  necessity  imposed :  it  is  a  rescue  pro- 


pounded.  We  are  sent  to  say,  Ye  must  be  bom 
again ;  but  could  men  know  wliat  is  tlie  fullness  and 
blessedness  thereof,  we  sliould  rather  say :  Ye  may  be 
born  again  !  Would  not  men  rejoice,  if,  after  an  expe- 
rience of  forty  or  fifty  years  in  the  entanglements  and 
complications  of  business,  all  the  past  might  be  swept 
away,  and  they,  with  their  accumulated  experience, 
might  start  anew  ?  He  that  takes  the  Bankrupt  Act, 
and  is  cleansed  from  all  debts,  and  cleared  from  all 
debtors,  is  commercially  born  again.  It  has  pleased 
God  to  pass  a  universal  spiritual  bankrupt  act,  by 
which  men  are  cleared  of  all  debts  of  sin.  The  past 
is  counted  as  if  it  had  not  been:  transgressions  and 
inicpiities  are  forgiven.  It  is  true  that  certain  physical 
effects  of  sinnino;  can  not  at  once  be  remedied.  It  is 
true  that  habits  are  not  transformed  in  a  moment.  But 
there  is  peace  with  God,  and  reconciliation  ;  the  fear  of 
doom  is  removed ;  and  the  soul,  no  longer  dreading 
divine  retril)ution,  confidently  looks  to  Him  against 
whom  it  has  sinned,  for  pity,  for  help,  and  for  sympa- 
thy in  bearing  the  remaining  pains  and  penalties  of  its 
past  misconduct. 

But  this  is  not  all.  In  reconstructing  the  character 
of  the  individual,  Christianity  proposes  also  to  recon- 
struct the  whole  system  of  human  society.  While  it 
has  a  law  for  individual  conduct,  it  has  likewise  a  laAV 
for  every  combination  in  which  men  exist  and  for  every 
institution  through  which  they  act  or  are  acted  upon. 
It  enters  each  individual  heart  to  renew  it  from  the 
foundation.  It  enters  every  household  to  renovate  it 
radically,  giving  conceptions  of  the  family  state  that 
never  could  have  dawned  upon  the  world  but  for  the 
advent  of  Christ.  It  glorifies  the  ofiice  of  parents,  and 
makes  them  vicegerents  of  God  to  their  infant  children. 
It  lifts  up  the  child  before  the  loving  parents  as  some- 


IQ 

thing  lent  to  them  of  God.  It  is  not  tlieirs.  Nor  is  it 
to  be  reared  for  their  pleasure,  but  for  glory  and  im- 
mortality. It  unites  brother  and  sister  through  the 
faith  of  immortality  with  affections  purer  and  sweeter 
than  could  ever  have  sprung  from  an  unsanctiiied 
human  nature.  The  family,  in  the  contemplation  of 
religion,  is  the  innermost  apartment,  the  holy  of  holies, 
of  the  church  upon  earth.  It  is  the  very  gate  of 
heaven.  Through  that  gate  men  enter  into  this  life ; 
from  that  gate  they  depart  out  of  it.  Living  or  dying, 
there  is  no  place  this  side  of  heaven  so  like  heaven  as 
the  Christian  household*-  It  is  the  very  home  of 
love  whose  fires  never  burn  dim ;  whose  odorous  flame 
never  goes  out.  Its  law  is  love,  and  obedience  is  easy. 
While  in  tlie  great  world  outside,  passions  rage  and 
pride  and  malice  rend  the  peace  of  men,  we  escape 
gladly  thence,  as  storm-driven  mariners  from  a  clouded 
sea,  and  enter  the  family  as  upon  some  island  of  the 
blest,  itself  peaceful  in  the  midst  of  temjoestuous  and 
roaring  seas. 

Christianity  goes  forth  into  the  ways  of  daily  life 
to  im230se  the  law  of  holiness  upon  every  pleasure, 
upon  every  business,  upon  every  j)ursuit  and  profes- 
sion. It  enters  the  legislature,  and  demands  righteous- 
ness in  its  enactments.  It  stands  in  the  court,  and 
authoritatively  calls  for  equity.  It  assumes  supreme 
authority  at  the  very  capital  of  the  nation,  and  de- 
mands, in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  a  Christian  govern- 
ment. The  law  of  God  follows  every  man  through 
each  step  and  every  path,  and  its  solemn  requirements 
include  all  occupations  and  every  form  of  industry. 
"  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do 
all  to  the  glory  of  God."  Wherever  the  heart  of  man 
throbs  with  power,  and  wherever  his  brain  teems  ^dth 
fertile  suggestions,  tliere  is  the  law  of  Christ  and  the 


11 

antlioi'ity  of   religion.      Notliiug  is  too    small  for   its 
notice.     Nothing  is  so  minute  as  to  escape  its  demands. 
Nothing  is  so  vast  as  to  tower  above  it.     Nothing  is  so 
strong  as  to  defy  its  authority.     No  matter  how  great 
the  ruler,  nor  how  high  his  sphere,  and  no  matter  how 
hio-h  the  king,  or  how  glorious  the  emperor,  God  is 
their  master.    "  He  is  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.'' 
It  is  this  force  which  has  acted  for  two  thousand 
years  upon  modern  society.     It  is  the  secret  of  devel- 
opment.    It  is  the  law  of  growth.     "Were  men  wise  to 
understand  it,  changes  would  take  place  in  human  insti- 
tutions and  societies  gradually  and  naturally.      Laws 
and  customs  would  adapt  themselves  to  each  succes- 
sive generation,  as  the  bark  adapts  itself,  each  year,  to 
the  increasing  diameter  of  the   tree.      But,  being  re- 
sisted, this  secret,  silent  force  of  God  at  length  rends 
and  revolutionizes  ;  and  so  it  shall  go  on,  pulling  down 
and  building  up,  destroying  only  evil,  and  reconstruct- 
ing from  past  and  imperfect  forms  higher  and  noljler 
societies.     It  is  a  fire  and  a  hammer  that  breaks  the 
flinty  rock;    but   to   genial   soil,  it   is  solar  fire'^that 
strikes  no  blows,  yet  brings  forth  from  its  bosom  fruits 
and  flowers  innumerable.     They  that  desire  quietude 
—  let  them  never  23reach  the  Gospel.    They  that  would 
never  be  disturbed  by  new  ideas  —  let  them  not  take 
into  their  bosom  the  fire  of  divine  truth.     The  Bible 
is  a  dangerous  book  for  men  that  love  indolence,  and 
old  wrong,  and  spiritual  death.     Rightly  imderstood, 
the  Bible  is  the  most  dangerous  book  in  the  world  for 
despots  and  tyrants.     Men  that  have  their  interests  in 
wrong  can  have  no  peace  but  with  a  muzzled  Gospel. 
With   a    Gospel    free-speaking,  demanding  renovation 
and   disinterested   benevolence,  there  can  not  but  be 
turmoil,  and  disturbance,  and  retribution,  till  man  is 
changed  fi'om  evil  to  good,  and  the  earth  is  purified. 


12 

The  Bible  is  a  magazine  of  mercies  to  tliose  who  will, 
and  of  woes  to  those  who  will  not,  accept  it  in  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  sent.  If  it  be  taken  even  as  an 
embellishment  or  luxury,  with  its  precious  promises 
and  sweet  singings,  out  of  those  very  promises  and 
singings  there  may  come  that  fire  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  shall  turn  all  calmness  to  agitation.  For  the 
will  of  God  is  our  sanctification.  So  long  as  there  is 
any  thing  in  the  individual  not  perfectly  obedient  to 
the  will  of  God,  religion  must  disturb  it  and  change 
it.  So  long  as  there  is  any  thing  in  the  family  that  lifts 
itself  up  against  the  law  of  love,  there  must  be  change 
passed  upon  that.  In  every  business,  in  every  jirofes- 
sion,  in  every  philosophy,  in  all  arts,  in  government, 
in  every  section  of  worldly  affairs,  whatever  men's 
thoughts  and  purposes  and  interests  may  be,  there  is 
let  loose  fi'om  the  heart  of  God  a  spiritual  power  that 
is  to  revolutionize  and  renovate  until  the  earth  shall  be 
purified,  and  sin  be  banished,  and  all  mankind  be  holy 
and  happy. 

As  when  the  earth  is  locked  and  bound  fast  in 
winter  ice,  the  spring  sends  embassies  of  sweet  winds 
and  gentle-falling  rains,  and  ^vill  not  let  the  ice  alone, 
making  war  against  it,  and  thawing  it,  night  and  day, 
till  at  last  a  little  vantage  -  ground  is  gained,  and  the 
rivers  are  set  loose,  and  all  things  feel  the  teeming  life, 
and  break  forth  into  joy;  so,  when  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
which  is  love  and  justice  and  truth,  comes  to  the  world, 
it  sets  itself  to  loose  all  that  is  locked  and  bound  in  the 
winter  of  sin  ;  to  bring  forth  all  sweet  graces,  like  the 
flowers  of  early  summer.  "As  the  rain  cometh  down, 
and  the  snow  from  heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither, 
but  watereth  the  earth,  and  maketh  it  bring  forth 
and  bud,  that  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower,  and  bread 
to  the  eater ;  so  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  out  of 


13 

my  moutli :  it  shall  not  return  unto  me  void,  but  it 
shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please,  and  it  shall  pros- 
per in  the  thing  whereunto  I  sent  it." 

4.  Cheistianity  is  fistiveesal.  It  teaches  the  Fa- 
therhood of  God,  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  All 
those  must  needs  be  brothers  to  each  other  of  whom 
God  is  the  Father.  He  hath  said  to  the  whole  human 
race  :  "  Ye  are  members  one  of  another."  Christianity 
is  the  common  and  universal  law  of  this  one  brother- 
hood. Its  truths  are  not  of  one  age,  nor  for  one  people^ 
nor  of  any  one  school.  They  reach  out  to  all  peoples,  in 
every  land,  and  of  every  age.  Christianity  is  universal 
because  it  is  co-incident  mth  natural  law,  conformed  to 
the  very  structure  of  the  human  mind,  applicable  al- 
ways and  every  where. 

In  other  religions  there  was  adaptation  to  peculiar 
nations  and  ages.  Even  in  the  forerunning  faith  of  the 
Jew  there  was  much  that  was  transient.  The  precepts 
and  doctrines  of  Christ  are  equally  well  adaj)ted  to 
every  different  period.  They  belong  to  no  civilization, 
to  no  age,  to  no  race.  They  belong  to  man  universally, 
at  all  times,  and  in  every  j)lace.  They  are  as  fresh  to- 
day as  they  were  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  The 
philosophies  of  the  wisest  men  of  Greece  are  worn  out. 
The  utterances  of  Socrates  are  mse  yet,  but  most  of 
them  seem  so  only  when  we  conceive  of  them  as  they 
were  applied  to  his  own  time  and  country.  They  have 
little  or  nothing  for  us.  They  were  relative.  Much  of 
the  wisdom  of  Plato  seems  trite  even  to  children.  It 
has  lost  its  savor  and  its  perfume.  It  is  only  by  acquaint- 
ance with  cotemporaneous  history  that  one  can  truly 
understand  the  greatness  of  the  teachings  of  these  far- 
distant  men  of  the  East.  But  of  the  words  of  Christ, 
not  one  has  ever  perished,  not  one  has  lost  any  power  ; 
while  yet  there  is  treasured  up  in  them  worlds  of  in- 


14 

fluence  still  undeveloped  and  unsuspected,  there  is  not 
a  people  on  tlie  globe  to  whom  that  matchless  prayer 
of  our  Lord  is  not  as  applicable  as  to  the  disciple  band 
who  first  received  it  from  his  lips.  After  two  thousand 
years,  with  all  the  changes  that  Christianity  has  itself 
^vrought  upon  the  human  mind,  there  is  no  sentence  in 
it  that  needs  to  be  changed ;  none  that  needs  to  be 
added  thereto.  The  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  was  no 
more  true,  and  deep,  and  heart-searching  in  Jerusalem, 
two  thousand  years  ago,  than  now  it  is  in  New- York  or 
London.  It  was  not  a  sermon  for  Jews,  but  for  man- 
kind. The  wondrous  consolations  which  the  Saviour 
breathed  into  the  ears  of  his  disciples  upon  the  eve  of 
crucifixion,  are  as  heavenly  and  divinely  fragrant  of 
love  in  these  late  hours  of  the  world,  as  on  the  day 
when  he  spoke  them.  The  Gospel  works  the  same 
fruit,  whether  in  Greenland  or  Madagascar,  among  the 
Chinese  or  the  Indians  of  our  Western  forests.  To  Jew 
and  Gentile,  to  bond  and  free,  to  the  highest  in  culture 
and  to  the  rudest,  it  bears  the  same  truths  needed  alike 
by  all,  and  working  in  all  the  same  penitence  and  love. 
The  duties  enjoined  in  the  Gospel  are  universal  from 
the  beginning  of  life  to  the  end  of  it.  From  the  cra- 
dle to  the  cofiin,  from  the  barbarous  condition  to  the 
hio:hest  reach  of  civilization,  the  teachinsfs  of  the  Sav- 
iour  are  continuously  applicable.  Nor  can  the  imagin- 
ation picture  any  state  which  will  outrun  the  law  of 
Christ.  There  is  no  moral  philoso2:)hy  that  will  teach 
us  any  thing  better  than  Christ  taught.  There  is  no 
conception  of  purity  more  transcendent  and  beautiful 
than  that  which  was  evolved  in  the  life  of  the  Saviour. 
There  is  no  disinterested  benevolence  to  be  compared 
with  that  which  is  portrayed  by  the  New  Testament. 
Methinks  I  see  the  Christian  saint  going  to  school  to 
the  modern  new-fangled  philosophies,  and  asking  les- 


15 

sons  of  their  disciples,  that  they  may  be  led  Ly  them 
in  better  ways,  and  to  higher  attainments  !  When  the 
summer  shall  go  to  Nova  Zembla  to  be  instructed  in 
blossoming  and  fruit-bearing,  then  may  we  expect  gro- 
veling and  sensuous  material  philosophies  to  give  men 
that  divine  effluence,  that  soul-unfolding  of  God,  which 
comes  to  them  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

5.  Christianity  is  everlasting.  Heaven  and  earth 
shall  2^c(,ss^  hut  my  loord  sliall  not  ])ass  away.  In 
so  far  as  it  enunciates  the  nature  and  dispositions  of 
God,  it  must  remain  forever  true  and  the  same.  If  its 
teachings  of  man,  his  nature,  his  character,  his  necessities, 
are  true,  then  it  must  remain  as  long  as  mankind  re- 
mains. If  it  provides  a  train  of  divine  influences  for 
the  remedy  of  sin,  and  for  the  education  of  the  human 
heart,  it  must  endure  as  long  as  a  heart  shall  beat,  or  a 
nature  need  spiritual  culture.  Christianity  is  not  to  be 
regarded  as  something  grafted  upon  nature,  or  super- 
imposed upon  the  course  of  things ;  it  is  itself  a  part 
of  that  universal  nature  of  which  this  world  is  a  sec- 
tion. Its  applications  may  be  special,  but  it  is  itself 
original,  universal,  everlasting.  The  institutions  of 
Christianity,  the  governments  which  have  sprung  up 
under  it,  the  special  inflections  of  its  laws,  their  appli- 
cations to  usages  and  customs,  may  change  to  meet  the 
changing  wants  of  man ;  but  its  principles,  its  truths, 
its  divine  influences  can  never  change.  The  progress  of 
investigation  of  man's  nature  may  modify  the  modes  in 
which  the  doctrine  of  human  sinfulness  shall  be  stated, 
but  that  great  and  dreadful  truth,  that  man  is  so  sinful 
that  he  will  perish  without  the  divine  interference  for  re- 
demption and  restoration,  remains  the  same.  Some 
things  may  be  added,  and  some  things  may  be  changed, 
in  the  statements  which  we  make  of  the  divine  nature ; 
the  theory  of  moral  government  may  be  altered ;  but 


16 

tliis  can  never  affect  tlie  great  verities  tlieniselves.     The 
change  is  only  on  the  side  of  the  human  mind.    Newer 
glasses  and  more  careful  examinations  change  the  doc- 
trines of  astronomy,  but  no  glass  and  no  examination 
ever  change  the  planets  themselves,  which  roll  in  un- 
conscious grandeur  far  above  reach  or  human  muta- 
tions.    He  that  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever can  not  be  reached  by  our  speculations.     It  is  to 
be  believed,  with  the  progress  of  holiness,  with  a  larger 
experience  in  divine  things,  that  we  shall  understand 
better  the  nature  aud  operations  of  divine  government 
over  men.     None  of  all  ^he  changes  that  are  incident 
to   the   progress   of  knowledge   in   the   human  mind 
amounts  to  any  essential  change  in  the  truths  or  de- 
velopments of  Christianity.     Thus  far  in  its  histoiy  it 
has  gained  by  every  assault  made  upon  it.     At  suc- 
cessive periods  men  have  thought  that  they  had  accom- 
plished its  downfall ;    but  after  a  little  it  has  risen 
brighter  and  stronger  for  all  the  opposition  it  has  met. 
Since  it  carries  in  its  heart  the  welfare  of  the  human 
race,  and  is  itself  the  power  of  God  for  salvation,  it 
shall  endure  as  Ions:  as  the  sun  and  the  moon.     Its  vie- 
tories  are  yet  in  progress.     In  no  other  period  of  the 
world  has  it  ever  exerted  so  great  an  influence  upon 
civilization  as  now.     The  philosophies  that   seem  to 
shape  it  are  themselves  more  molded  by  it  than  it  by 
them.     Its  invisible  restraints  are  upon  governments. 
It  is  infusing  its  spirit  into  courts,  and  into  the  laws 
which  they  administer.     With  all  its  defects  and  ex- 
'  cesses,  the  literature  of  the  globe  is  penetrated  with 
this  divine  influence.     It  rules  in  the  family.     It  modi- 
fies political  economy.    Indirectly,  it  leavens  commerce. 
The  morals  and  the  manners  of  the  globe  acknowledge 
the  sway  of  Christianity.     It  gives  to  the  world  its 
ideals  of  virtue,  its  model  of  true  manhood.     While 


17 

the  Churcli  is  the  seat  from  wliicli  its  truths  do  act,  tlie 
Church  does  not  represent  the  whole  sphere  of  its 
influence.  From  its  altars  goes  forth  the  light  that 
illumines  the  whole  of  human  society,  revealing  the 
forms,  and  giving  color  and  beauty  to  all  things  upon 
which  it  rests.  As  long  as  the  earth  endures,  so  long 
shall  the  name  of  Christ  be  precious.  And  the  king- 
dom of  Christ  shall  be  better  understood.  It  shall  be 
stronger  in  all  its  developments,  and  more  glorious  in 
its  victories,  until  the  heathen  shall  be  given  to  him 
for  his  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  for  a  possession. 

Such,  in  briefest  suggestion,  is  the  Christian  faith ; 
and  the    command   that  has    never  been  revoked  is: 
Go,  preach  it  to  every  creature.      Much   has  already 
been  done,  but   the    campaign  is  not  yet  completed. 
When  that  is  done,  and  the  seed  is  so^vn  in  every  land 
so  that  every  people  shall  have  its  Bibles  and  homilies 
of  instruction,  even  then  the  work  will  be  but  begun. 
For  Christianity  is  not  a  thing  merely  to  be  taken  in 
by  the  ear.    It  is  a  leaven  destined  to  leaven  the  whole 
lump  of  society.     It  is  designed  to  carry  human  life, 
in  all  its  combinations,  up  to  higher  forms  than  any 
yet  known.     Were  every  island  of  the  sea,  and  every 
dark  place  of  the  continents,  reached  by  the  missionary 
of  the  cross,  were  the  Sabbath-day  established,  and  its 
ineffable  peace  shiuing  over  every  city  and  upon  every 
village  of  the  world,   still  the  work  of   Christianity 
would  be  but  just  begun.     While  it  is  renovating,  in 
each  generation,  the  hearts  of  men,  and  preparing  them 
for  heaven,  it  is  silently  acting  in  a  larger  sphere,  and 
changing  the  world's  governments,  ideas,  and  usages. 
It  is  educing  a  nobler  civilization  for  every  century. 
2 


18 

The  Gospel  having  come  to  us,  by  us  it  must  be  oar 
ried  further.  For,  as  nothing  in  nature  is  beautiful 
except  as  it  has  the  power  of  reflecting  light  —  as  the 
crystal  takes  that  very  light  by  which  it  is  illumined, 
and  lets  it  stream  through  it  or  reflects  it  fi'om  it  —  so 
every  heart  that  has  been  made  light  must  let  that 
radiance  go  through  it,  or  reflect  from  it  that  by  which 
it  is  itself  made  glorious.  No  man  may  receive  the 
hope  of  salvation  and  the  joy  of  pardon,  and  keep  the 
news  to  himself.  He  must  declare  what  the  Lord  has 
done  for  him.  The  man  that  has  walked  in  the  garden 
of  the  Lord  can  not  keej^  the  secret.  His  very  raiment 
will  exhale  spice  and  odor,  if  he  has  been  among  celes- 
tial flowers.  When  Moses  came  down  from  the  Mount 
he  had  no  occasion  to  say :  "  I  have  seen  the  Lord." 
The  shining  of  his  face  declared  the  celestial  interview. 
If  one  has  walked  in  the  very  presence  of  Christ,  and 
heard  the  Master  say  to  him,  "  Thou  art  mine,  and  thine 
is  the  eternal  inheritance,"  shall  he  suppress  the  fact  ? 
If  one  has  found  a  remedy  for  the  deep  disorder  of  sin, 
shall  men  die  all  around  about  him,  and  he  withhold 
the  tidings  ?  If  the  hunger  of  the  heart  has  been 
satisfied  wdth  bread  from  heaven,  shall  any  sordid 
hand  sequester  the  loaf  while  dying  men  pine  around  ? 
Every  man  that  is  born  into  the  kingdom  of  God  be- 
comes, from  that  very  moment,  according  to  his  degree 
and  in  his  own  sphere,  a  preacher  of  the  glad  tidings 
of  salvation. 

No  man  can  say,  "  I  am  a  Christian,"  wdio  has  not 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  And  Avhat  is  that  spirit  1  "  For 
ye  know  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that, 
though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  he  became  poor, 
that  ye  through  his  poverty  might  be  rich."  No 
church,  no  Christian  community  can  afford  to  be  with- 
out this  all-diffusing  sj)irit  of  Christ.     It  is  not  enough 


19 

that  we  have  the  blessino-s  of  Christ ;  we  must  send 
them  abroad  to  others.  In  heart-life,  it  is  what  men 
give  away  tliat  makes  them  rich.  How  coiihl  there  be 
brightness  if  there  were  no  forth-putting  of  beams  of 
light  ?  As  with  all  teaching  it  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive,  so  is  it  mth  the  gifts  of  Christ  in  the 
Gospel.  Does  not  a  mother  gain  more  than  she  gives  ? 
Does  not  her  heart  grow  richer  by  loving  the  child 
than  the  child's  does  by  being  loved  ?  The  parent  that 
instructs  is  yet  more  instructed.  For  as  shrubs  and 
flowers  which  line  the  bank  of  tranquil  lakes  cast  their 
shadow^s  forth  upon  the  barren  water,  are  mirrored  back 
again  to  themselves  now  more  beautiful  in  reflection 
than  upon  their  own  root — since  the  heaven,  too,  is 
imaged  in  the  water,  and  they  see  their  beauty  on  the 
celestial  background — so,  they  that  freely  give  them- 
selves to  the  hearts  of  men  live  double,  in  themselves 
and  in  others,  and  heaven  is  behind  every  one  Avhom 
we  bless,  and  our  deeds  stand  pictured  on  its  ineftable 
beauty.  He  that  casts  gifts  into  the  lap  of  the  needy, 
casts  them  into  the  hand  of  God.  We  think  that  it  is 
poor  and  sinful  man  whom  we  bless,  but  straightW'a}' 
we  hear  a  voice,  saying :  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it  unto 
me."  And  this  is  the  law  of  societies  as  Avell  as  of  in- 
dividuals. Churches  thrive  by  the  blessings  which  they 
diffuse  to  others.  They  never  are  so  strong  at  home 
as  when  they  are  employing  their  strength  wide  abroad 
through  the  world.  That  church  that  is  only  taking 
care  of  itself  will  die  of  selfishness.  That  church  which 
is  co62:)erating  with  God  for  the  whole  world,  will  go, 
in  the  power  of  God,  from  strength  to  strength. 

There  is  a  benevolence  that  acts  with  the  senses.  It 
relieves  visible  suffering ;  its  objects  must  be  brought 
within  the  reach  of  the  sight,  or  the  ear,  or  the  hand. 


20 

We  call  such  benevolence  generosity.  That  is  a  trait 
good  and  noble.  It  sliould  be  largely  developed  in 
every  Christian  bosom,  and  in  every  church.  But  there 
is  a  benevolence  nobler  than  this.  It  is  allied  to  faith ; 
it  believes  without  seeing ;  it  takes  the  measure  of  in- 
visible suffering  ;  it  projects  its  plans  into  times  unseen, 
and  into  places  unvisited.  This  is  the  peculiar  l^enevo- 
lence  of  the  Gospel,  and  this  is  the  peculiar  training 
which  missions  give  to  the  Christian  Church.  As  com- 
pared with  selfishness,  generosity  is  above  all  praise  ; 
but  there  is  a  quality  higher  than  that,  and  more  divine. 
To  take  the  gauge  of  oue's  moral  condition,  to  have 
sympathy  with  the  wants  of  myriads  speaking  foreign 
tongues ;  to  make  provision  for  the  education  of  gen- 
erations of  children  lying  beyond  our  sight  or  personal 
knowledge  ;  to  rear  up  institutions  and  renovate  gov- 
ernments in  distant  continents,  and  in  the  isles  of  the 
sea  ;  to  give  of  means  and  thought  and  zeal,  for  results 
known  to  belong  to  distant  generations  ;  dying,  to  leave 
this  work  as  a  legacy  to  our  children — this  is  the  sub- 
lime l:)enevolence  of  Christian  faith.  And  there  is  no 
mere  generosity  that  can  frame  the  character  to  such 
nobleness  and  breadth  and  moral  power  as  can  this  phi- 
lanthropy, which  is  the  very  spirit  of  Christian  missions. 

Modern  civilization  has  both  hindrances  and  helps  to 
the  great  diffusive  w^ork  of  Christianity. 

1.  There  are  stores  of  moral  power  at  home  which 
will  give  great,  energy  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 
When  the  Apostles  went  abroad,  they  could  only  point 
to  the  yet  unfruitful  fact  of  a  Christ  born,  crucified, 
risen  again.  To  be  sure,  mighty  portents,  wonder-in- 
spiring miracles  had  accompanied  his  advent,  and 
witnessed  the  divinity  of  his  pow'er.  But  no  church 
had  then  a  legacy  of  experience  to  bequeath  to  the 


21 

world.  The  old  Jewisli  Cliurcli  Iiad  received  its 
deatli- wound.  Jerusalem  was  sliaking  already  mtli 
those  earthquakes  that  destroyed  her.  The  Apostles 
had  been  scattered  by  persecution  ;  there  was  no  Christ- 
ian literature,  there  were  no  Christian  institutions.  The 
Apostles  could  not  point  the  nations  to  whom  they  went 
to  the  achievements  of  Christian  piety,  to  Christian 
governments,  to  Christian  literature,  to  Christian  fami- 
lies, to  Christian  art,  and  say :  "  These  are  the  fruits 
which  shall  follow  among  you  the  reception  of  our  Gos- 
pel." But  when  missionaries  go  from  our  midst  in  this 
ao-e  to  heathen  lands,  the  whole  heaven  ^-lows  behind 
them  with  the  radiance  of  Christian  civilization.  They 
stand  in  the  darkness  of  heathenism,  with  a  history  of 
eighteen  hundred  years'  corroboration  of  the  mighty 
power  of  the  Gospel  to  overthrow  evil,  to  regenerate 
decaying  institutions,  to  intone  virtue,  to  sweeten  fam- 
ily affections,  to  redeem  the  life  from  sin  and  the  soul 
from  death. 

2.  Our  knowled2:e  of  the  work  to  be  done  is  such  as 
was  never  before  possessed.  History,  geography,  and 
ethnography  are  contributions  to  the  sacred  cause  of 
missions.  The  world  has  been  surveyed.  Its  statistics 
have  been  taken.  The  manners  and  customs  of  all  its 
people  have  been  studied.  We  are  no  longer  aj^proach- 
ing  single  nations,  laboring  to  detach  fragments  only 
from  the  mighty  fortress.  "We  have  gone  round  the 
whole  great  citadel  of  heathenism.  Every  stej)  in  de- 
tail is  paii:  of  a  mighty  system  which  contemplates 
nothing  less  than  the  capture  of  the  whole.  The  mis- 
sions of  all  nations  are  becoming  related  to  each  other. 
The  different  groups  of  the  great  Christian  brother- 
hood are  but  parts  of  the  one  great  army  of  the  Lord 
of  hosts  moving  straight  on  to  victory. 

3.  All  the  material  instruments  by  which  the  imple- 


22 

ments  of  knowledge  are  multiplied  and  diffused,  are  de- 
veloped in  our  age  as  never  before.  In  tlie  time  that  was 
required  to  write  one  Bible  in  the  Apostles'  days,  we 
can  now  print  a  million.  The  money  that  would  have 
given  the  foi'tunate  possessor  a  single  manuscript,  will 
now  provide  Bibles  for  a  tribe  or  a  nation.  Knowledge 
may  be  said,  almost  literally,  to  be  wdthout  money  and 
without  price,  w^hen  for  a  penny  a  man,  every  day,  may 
have  newspapers  that  cover  the  cotemporaneous  history 
of  the  globe.  Books  are  cheaper  than  bread.  None 
are  so  poor  that  they  can  not  have  the  reading  of  the 
record  of  the  events  transpiring  in  every  nation  on  the 
globe.  And  while  we  multiply  the  means  of  know- 
ledge at  home,  the  facility  of  transportation  makes  it 
easier  to  send  them  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth 
than  in  our  fathers'  days  it  was  to  supply  the  near  dis- 
tricts of  our  own  land.  One  can  now  go  round  the 
earth  and  come  home  again  quicker  than  Paul  could  go 
in  his  day  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome.  The  eyeless  press 
is  ofivins:  eyes  to  the  io-norant,  the  world  over.  Ma- 
chines  are  missionaries.  The  vast  marine  engine  that 
bears  freights  for  commerce,  toils  unconsciously  for  the 
cross.  The  clanking  printing-press  under  the  pavement 
is  i)reaching  to  China,  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  to 
the  Indians  of  the  forest. 

But,  besides  all  this,  there  is  a  spirit  of  nations,  a 
spirit  of  the  age,  Avliich  compels  learning,  philosophy, 
art,  v^ealth  itself,  to  serve  the  poor  and  the  weak. 
And  although  the  most  visible  exemplifications  of  this 
tendency  are  developed  at  home,  this  great  democratic 
impetus  can  not  but  affect  the  work  of  missions  through- 
out the  glol)e.  Art  Avas  once  the  peculiar  glory  of  kings, 
of  aristocrats,  of  the  rich.  Already  it  has  bowed  down 
and  is  seeking  the  poor.  Already  art  is  teaching  Christ- 
ian democracy.   More  and  more  every  year  it  is  striving 


23 

to  express,  in  forms  and  colors,  Christian  sentiments. 
The  liumanities  of  the  Gospel  now  glow  fi'om  marble 
statues,  shine  from  the  canvas.  The  atelier  of  the  artist 
is  a  pnlpit.  His  silent  brush  is  a  living  tongue.  In 
like  manner,  learning  has  lost  its  proud  seclusion.  The 
scholar  has  become  the  teacher  of  the  common  people. 
He  walks  home  empty-handed  who  walks  with  the 
aristocratic  alone,  while  he  whose  great  heart  takes  in 
all,  and  feels  for  all,  and  works  for  all,  receives  remun- 
eration from  all,  and  achieves  success.  Although  this 
may  be  perverted  to  purposes  of  selfishness,  it  springs 
from  that  great  Christian  spirit  of  the  age  which  is 
causing  the  strong  to  work  for  the  weak,  and  which  is 
bringing  down  the  heavens,  with  all  their  power  and 
glory,  in  a  ministration  of  mercy  to  the  poor  and  the 
ignorant. 

JSTor  is  it  a  little  thing  that  civilization  and  the  greatest 
political  organizations  of  the  globe  are  nominally,  and 
to  no  inconsiderable  extent  really,  Christian.  When 
the  Gospel  was  first  preached,  the  civilizations  of  the 
world  were  heathen.  The  Grecian  civilization  had  cul- 
minated ;  the  Egyptian  had  burned  out ;  the  Roman 
was  just  coming  to  its  full.  There  was  not  one  place 
on  the  earth  where  Christianity  was  in  the  ascendant. 
Its  ideas  had  as  yet  leavened  no  law,  controlled  no  in- 
stitution, changed  no  custom,  inspired  no  respect,  over- 
mastered no  power.  The  commercial  spirit  of  the  world 
was  heathen.  The  military  2:)ower  of  the  age  was  hea- 
then. Roman  banners  were  consecrated  before  heathen 
altars.  Their  victories  were  celebrated  with  heathen 
ceremonies.  The  literature  of  tke  Avorld,  and  its  learn- 
ing, were  heathen.  The  art  of  the  world  served  hea- 
then ideas.  Every  statue  spoke  a  lie.  Forms  and  colors 
were  the  handmaids  and  instruments  of  lies.  Every 
sweet  song  sang  ftilsehood  or  corruption.     Every  book 


24 

and  j^archment  was  tlie  veliicle  of  untruth.  Seals  and 
cameos,  gems  and  jewelry,  silently  tauglit  in  the  inter- 
ests of  heathenry.  The  very  forms  of  nature,  by  asso- 
ciation, had  become  the  teachers  of  falsehoods.  The 
oak,  the  myrtle,  were  filled  with  lying  mythologies. 
The  fountain,  the  stream,  the  mountain,  were  full  of 
mischievous  legends.  The  sun  by  day,  and  the  moon 
by  night,  and  all  the  stars,  conveyed  false  moral  con- 
ceptions to  mankind.  The  very  flowers  with  the  dew 
that  lay  upon  them,  as  fair  hands  plucked  them  and 
wove  them  into  chaplets  for  the  temple  services,  ex- 
haled untruth.  If  the  G^ospel  had  done  nothing  else 
but  to  disenchant  the  world  and  make  it  true  again, 
that  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the 
earth  shows  his  handiwork,  that  would  have  been  a 
sufficient  reason  for  glorifying  God. 

But  now,  after  eighteen  hundred  years,  there  is  not  a 
single  government  of  considerable  power  that  is  not 
Christian.  The  heathen  governments  are  lowest  in  the 
scale,  and  least  in  influence  ;  and  among  Christian  gov- 
ernments, those  are  strongest  that  stand  upon  the  plat- 
form of  Protestant  Christianity.  The  nearer  you  ap- 
proach to  the  j)^^i"er  forms  of  spiritual  truth,  the  more 
shall  you  find  among  the  people  political  wisdom,  com- 
mercial ability,  and  every  element  of  civil  strength  and 
national  grandeur.  The  very  literature  of  the  world  is 
on  our  side.  The  song-power  of  the  globe,  in  spite  of 
bacchanal  songs  and  the  inspiration  of  the  sensual  pas- 
sions, is  every  year  growing  more  Christian.  Hymns 
and  psalms  and  spiritual  songs,  with  sweet,  melodious 
l^attle,  are  bearing  down  the  lyrics  of  the  passions.  A 
divine  A230II0  slays  the  Python.  There  is  enough  joy- 
ful experience  of  souls  made  luminous  by  the  Spirit  of 
God  put  into  hymn-forms,  to  inspire  the  heart  of  every 
man  on  earth  with  noble  desires  and  purposes.     The 


25 

religious  literature  of  the  world  is  amazing  for  its  deptli, 
its  breadtL,  and  it  abundance  of  all  conceivable  riches. 
The  genius  of  the  world  every  year  is  more  and  more 
accepting  the  service  of  Christ,  and  laboring  for  the  good 
of  man.  I  know  not  what  others'  conceptions  of  rapid- 
ity may  be,  but  to  my  mind  the  progress  of  the  world 
in  Christianity  for  the  last  eighteen  hundred  years  has 
been  exceedingly  rapid.  Nor  has  there  been  cessation 
in  that  progress.  Do  you  not  suppose  that  night  is  as 
much  a  part  of  the  day  as  the  daylight  itself?  Is  not 
sleeping  as  much  as  waking  a  part  of  life  ?  You  lose 
nothing  in  night  that  you  do  not  find  again  in  the  glo- 
rious vigor  of  your  waking  hours.  It  is  said  that  God's 
work  stood  still  during  the  dark  ages.  Hidden  it  may 
have  been,  but  it  was  neither  inert  nor  dead.  The 
orb  of  Christian  work  revolves,  and  carries  nights  and 
seasons  as  the  year  does.  But  darkness  and  winter  in 
both  one  and  the  other  are  full  of  benefits. 

I  have  thus  far  spoken  of  the  advantages  of  modern 
civilization  for  the  work  of  Christianity.  Must  we 
not  pause  to  speak  of  some  of  the  corresponding  disad- 
vantages ? 

One  of  the  things  unfavorable  to  the  work  of  mis- 
sions, is  the  intense  materiality  of  our  age.  We  are  in 
a  transition  state,  in  which  God,  in  his  providence,  is 
permitting  the  human  mind,  doubtless  for  some  final 
reason  of  wisdom,  to  take  a  direction  almost  exclusive- 
ly toward  the  material  and  the  visible.  It  can  not  be 
denied  that  the  spirit  of  the  principal  nations  of  the 
globe,  at  this  time,  is  intensely  material ;  that  the  wis- 
dom of  men  is  downward  rather  than  upward.  I 
know  not  of  a  single  nation  where  a  painter  would 
now  dream  of  making  the  ideal  man,  as  the  old  paint- 
ers made  theirs,  with  reverential  uplifted  head,  as  if 
seeking  communion  in  the  great  invisible  realm.     If  so 


26 

painted,  men  wonld  imagine  that  he  was  gazing  after  a 
iDaHoon,  or  taking  an  observation  of  the  stars,  for  scien- 
tific profit.  Our  national  thought,  the  genius  of  our 
times,  is  material.  We  are  a  scientific  people,  an  invent- 
ive people,  a  calculating  people,  a  thrifty,  accumulating 
people.  Men  are  in  communion  with  the  crust  of  the 
globe.  They  are  piercing  mines,  bridging  rivers,  break- 
ing through  mountains,  building  ships.  They  are  dig- 
ging, weaving,  building,  creating,  accumulating,  as  they 
have  never  done  before.  But  this,  a  present  evil,  is  but 
one  stage  of  a  great  progression  ^vhose  whole  movement 
shall  be  sublimely  beneficial.  Yet,  at  the  present,  this 
tendency  is  accompanied  with  the  decadence  of  faith, 
with  a  reaction  from  belief  in  the  invisible.  We  are 
getting  rid  of  superstition  by  getting  rid  of  faith  itself. 
That  which  men  can  see  they  believe.  Men  worship 
their  own  senses  ;  and  the  ear,  the  nose,  the  mouth,  the 
hand  —  these  be  thy  gods,  O  England  and  America ! 
Even  when  men,  by  the  force  of  their  imagination, 
form  some  conceptions  of  invisible  things,  their  fellows 
regard  the  product,  not  as  realities,  but  as  the  ara- 
besques of  Christianity.  A  faith  in  invisible  things  on 
which  a  man  can  lay  his  whole  weight,  that  shall  in- 
spire his  life  more  than  all  visible  things,  that  shall 
penetrate  his  heart  with  a  divine  enthusiasm,  that  shall 
make  suffering  easy,  and  patience  facile — there  is  l^ut 
little  of  that.  The  reason,  not  the  imagination,  is  gain- 
ing ground  at  the  present  era.  The  whole  world  is 
asking  for  reality,  meaning  that  lower  part  of  truth 
which  the  senses  can  appreciate. 

This  decadence  of  faith  causes  the  subsidence  of 
contagious  enthusiasm.  I  have  already  said  that 
soul-touch,  spiritual  contact,  was  the  power  by  which 
God  means  to  propagate  the  Gospel,  and  renovate 
the  world.     In  our  revivals  of  religion  we  still  pre- 


27 

serve  sometbing  of  this  power.  These  are  the  river- 
heads  from  whicli  flow  streams  of  divine  effluence. 
Yet  there  is  an  increasing  dechne  in  religious  enthu- 
siasm. Than  this  nothing  could  ])e  more  fatal  to  the 
hope  of  missions. 

I  mention  these  disadvantages,  not  to  excite  fear  or 
despondency.  Ah-eady  there  are  tokens  of  remedy. 
That  Providence  which  has  never  left  the  world  with- 
out the  witness  of  a  divine  guidance,  is,  even  in  these 
things,  restraining  the  wrath  of  man,  and  his  folly,  and 
causing  the  remainder  thereof  to  praise  him. 

It  may  seem  to  some  that  this  is  not  the  time,  when 
civil  war  rasres,  and  the  ear  is  familiar  with  the  tramp 
of  armies,  to  attempt  to  arouse  the  churches  and  fire 
their  zeal  for  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel ;  but  the  great 
work  of  missions  has  been,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  a  child  of  revolutions.     The  Gospel  itself,  like 
its  Master,  has  found  strength  in  suffering.     Not  then, 
when  peace  was  most  profound,  and  prosperity  beguiled 
men  to  selfish  joys,  have  the  triumphs  of  religion  l^een 
easiest  or  greatest.     Keligion  is  the  child  of  persecu- 
tion.    It  will  never  forget  the  Cross.     The  Roman  sol- 
diers gave  to  the  world  that  precious  life  which  has 
breathed  regeneration  through  two  thousand  years.     It 
will  not  hurt  the  Church  to  walk  again  in  the  desert ; 
to  follow  her  Master  into  the  wilderness ;  to  feel  the 
spear  as  he  felt  it ;  to  wear  some  of  those  thorns  which 
crowned  him.     Our  faith  would  be  sterner  and  more 
resilient,  our  enthusiasm  would  be  deeper  and  more 
generous,  if  only  we  coidd  be  persuaded  to  suffer  for 
our  belief     We  mark  the  value  of  any  principle  by 
what  we  are  willing  to  suffer  for  it.     Let  us  take  no 
excuse  from  ourselves.     Our  sufferings  are  few ;  but 
the  whole   creation  groans  and  travails  in  pain  rmtil 
now.     Shall  we  withdraw  our  eyes  from  the  world's 


28 

great  woe,  and  be  absorbed,  in  our  own  hour  of  trouble  ? 
It  does  not  become  a  Cliristian  nation  to  stag^g^er  in  the 
day  of  trial.  We  ought  to  carry  forth  this  glorious 
renovation  in  our  land,  without  laying  down  any  other 
duty.  I  look  uj^on  this  struggle  as  only  one  step  in 
the  evangelization  of  the  globe  itself  I  connect  this 
immortal  strife  against  slavery  with  the  divine  work  of 
missions.  That  Gosj^el  which  is  wasting  superstitions 
in  Asia,  destroying  obscene  altars  in  Africa,  weakening 
tyrannic  thrones  every  where,  is  loosening  the  bands  of 
slaves  at  home.  That  same  j^ower  tliat  crumbled  the 
Parthenon  at  Athens,  and  laid  the  amphitheater  at 
Rome  in  a  heap  of  ruins  ;  that  changed  the  once  awful 
Jupiter  to  a  myth ;  that  has  overturned  governments, 
enfeebled  thrones,  and  revolutionized  the  world,  bring- 
ing down  nations  that  were  at  the  top,  and  lifting  up 
nations  that  were  at  the  bottom ;  that  has  fought  every 
where  for  the  right,  and  every  w^here  conquered — that 
power  is  now  at  work  in  our  land !  Wicked  men  are 
only  God's  instruments.  It  is  the  regenerating  j^ower 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  that  has  met  the  dark  sj^irit  of 
evil  in  our  land,  and  is  moving  upon  it ;  and  this  is  a 
conflict  between  good  and  evil  which  God  has  himself 
set  on  and  supervised  since  the  beginning  of  the  world. 
We  are  not  yet  touched  in  the  sources  of  our  strength. 
Our  people  are  reared  to  industry.  They  are  versatile, 
economical,  resilient.  The  outflowing  stream  of  their 
wealth  may  be  sucked  up  or  perturbed,  but  the  sources 
and  fountains  are  untouched.  You  can  not  make 
them  so  230or  that  they  will  not  soon  be  rich  again. 
Our  wealth  consists  not  in  accumulations,  but  in  the 
power  to  accumulate.  I  laugh  to  scorn  the  idea  of 
bankruptcy  in  this  country.  Changes  there  may  be  in 
individual  fortunes,  but  the  foundations  of  society  will 
not  be  chaufred  nor  shaken.     Christ  is  walkins^  toward 


29 

lis.  To  be  sure  it  is  in  tlie  night ;  to  be  sure  it  is  upon 
tlie  troubled  sea.  Even  so  ;  it  is  Christ  that  is  coming, 
and  niglit,  and  storm,  and  darkness  are  nothing.  It  is 
a  shame  that  prosperity  shouhl  weaken  us,  that  wealth 
should  take  away  our  power  to  do  with  less.  Wealth 
should  make  manhood  tougher,  more  elastic,  more  plas- 
tic. A  true  wealth  and  a  true  culture  augment  the 
bounds  of  inward  manhood  in  a  greater  ratio  than  of 
outward  comfort.  The  sources  of  recuperation  are 
open  to  us  more  than  to  any  other  part  of  this  whole 
land.  Ours  are  the  fairer  latitudes,  neither  too  hot  nor 
too  cold.  Ours  are  the  temperate  zones,  which  are  the 
very  bosoms  of  the  Avorld.  Ours  are  the  oceans,  the 
rivers,  and  access  to  the  whole  earth.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances, with  an  auspicious  future  undisturbed  by 
internal  conflicts,  shall  we  shrink,  retrench  our  charities, 
and  retrench  first  toward  God  ?  Economize,  but  let  it 
be  in  food  for  appetite  and  passion !  Economize,  but 
not  first  in  religion  and  philanthroj^y.  Let  your  own 
lamp  go  out,  but  never  take  oil  from  the  lam^j  that 
burns  in  the  sanctuary.  If  you  must  retrench,  let  it 
not  be  in  the  means  by  which  the  Gospel  is  to  be 
sj^read.  Let  us  not  take  back  books  from  the  Indian 
children,  nor  the  trumpet  that  calls  men  to  the  sanc- 
tuary in  the  Orient.  Let  us  divide  our  loaf  with  the 
missionaries,  and  make  ourselves  worthy  to  be  the 
children  of  the  men  who  founded  this  nation,  by  our 
fortitude  in  trouble,  by  our  courage  in  danger,  and  by 
our  inflexible  sympathy,  through  good  report  and 
throuo'h  evil,  with  the  work  of  God  in  all  the  world. 

There  are  some  things  that  to  the  external  vision 
look  dark  in.  our  history,  but  revolutions  do  not  go 
backward.  I  laugh  at  the  idea  that  slavery  is  to  spread 
over  this  nation.  It  subverts  all  our  faith  in  provi- 
dence and  in  Christianity  to  speak  of  such  a  monstrous 


3d 

thing  as  that.  It  is  quite  immaterial  wlietlier  in  this 
struggle  you  or  I  perish,  whether  yours  or  mine  perish : 
the  cause  of  liberty  in  this  country  will  not  perish. 
Thouo-h  all  the  stancliuo;  men  in  this  land  are  cut  off,  it 
will  be  as  when  the  grass  is  cut  upon  your  meadows. 
The  scythe  does  not  reach  the  root.  If  the  root  re- 
mains, all  is  well.  If  our  manhood  remains,  there  can 
be  no  srreat  national  disaster.  That  will  carry  us 
through.  If  I  were  to  make  an  appeal  in  behalf 
of  missions  drawn  from  the  necessities  of  our  time,  it 
would  be  this  :  Since  God  has  brought  you  into  tribu- 
lation and  trial,  it  behooves  you  to  manifest  your  faith 
and  love  by  more  zeal  in  his  cause  than  ever  before. 

It  is  related  that  on  a  baronial  castle  in  Germany, 
there  stood  two  vast  towers  between  which  were 
stretched  huge  wires.  On  them  ordinary  winds  had 
no  effect.  Only  when  tierce  storms,  rising,  rolled  and 
wrought,  did  this  gigantic  ^olian  harp  begin  to  sound 
stransre  and  sublime  melodies. 

There  are  in  the  human  soul  chords  which  are  not 
touched  by  times  of  prosperity.  Only  when  in  days 
of  tempests  God  moves  with  mighty  2:)0wer,  do  these 
deeper  tones  of  our  nature  sound  forth.  Such  times 
have  come.  Such  sounds  are  beginning  to  fill  the  air. 
Multij^ly  then  your  works.  Call  more  upon  God. 
Throw  away  the  ol)stacles  that  stand  between  him  and 
you.  Cleanse  your  churches.  Su])plicate  revivals  of 
religion  for  all  this  land.  Identify  yourselves  with 
God.  Throw  out  the  white  banner  of  salvation.  Un- 
slieath  the  sword  and  fio4it  the  battle  of  the  Lord. 
Never  so  much  as  now  did  this  land  need  piety.  It  is 
the  very  root  of  patriotism. 

Now,  more  than  ever,  O  Jesus !  open  thy  bosom,  and 
show  thy  heart.     Now,  for  our  l^anner's  sake,  for  the 


81 


poor  and  despised  slave's  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of 
thine  own  cause,  show  thy  people  thy  salvation  ! 

In  the  salvation  of  Christ,  in  the  blessed  power  of 
faith  in  the  Gospel,  in  that  love  which  from  the  bosom 
God  has  come  to  onr  hearts,  and  in  the  spirit  and  work 
of  it,  make  yourselves  strong,  and  all  other  things  shall 
be  given  nnto  jou.     Amen  and  amen. 


THIRTY-FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT 


|li?iu=gorIi  aiul  Iroohliiu  Jfoilt^iu"  Pijifiioiutiig  f  ocictg. 


The  New-York  and  Brooklyn  Foreign  Missionary  Society  presents  to  its  patrons 
and  the  public  the  following  Keport,  at  the  close  of  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  its 
existence. 

In  surveying  our  history  for  the  period  under  review,  and  that  also  of  the  insti- 
tution to  which  we  are  auxiliary,  we  find,  among  reasons  for  profound  gratitude, 
cause  for  grief  and  humiliation.  We  can  not  but  lament  that  when  the  harvest  is 
extending  and  becoming  more  inviting,  there  has  been  no  corresponding  growth, 
but  rather  a  diminution,  in  the  contributions  of  the  Church  at  large.  We  mourn, 
that  when  the  cry  of  want  is  reaching  us  on  every  side,  like  that  which,  in  a  vision, 
saluted  the  ears  of  the  Apostle,  saying,  "  Come  over  into  Macedonia  and  help  us," 
missionaries  ready  to  respond  are  compelled  to  restrain  their  ardor,  and. await  a 
replenished  treasury.  We  contemplate  with  sadness  all  those  embarrassments 
which  make  it  difficult  to  meet  necessary  demands  from  established  missions,  and 
altogether  forbid  a  liberality  of  administration  commensurate  with  the  opportunities 
of  progress  in  our  work. 

Yet  there  is  another  side.  We  rejoice  that  dark  apprehensions  in  respect  to  the 
indebtedness  of  the  parent  organization  have  been  so  happily  disappointed ;  and 
that,  in  a  time  of  great  financial  disturbance,  a  burden  is  imposed  upon  the  Board, 
so  light  as  to  call  for  thanksgivings  rather  than  complaints.  As  respects  our  own 
Society,  we  are  happy  to  say  that  the  total  regular  receipts,  as  will  appear  from  the 
Treasurer's  report,  have  been  a  little  in  advance  of  those  of  the  previous  year. 
And  deducting  from  both  the  amounts  specially  contributed  for  the  debt,  the  result 
is  still  in  favor  of  the  period  just  closed.  We  can  not  contemplate  this  fact  with- 
out mingled  surprise  and  gratitude  to  God.  Yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  it  is 
due  partly  to  the  change  in  the  financial  year,  which  brings  into  the  present  report 
the  receipts  of  thirteen  mouths ;  while  special  instances  of  individual  liberality 
have  swelled  the  amount  to  proportions  which  it  otherwise  would  have  fallen  far 
short  of  Amid  our  congratulations,  therefore,  let  us  keep  in  mind  that  our  work 
will  by  no  means  take  care  of  itself,  and  that  it  can  be  sustained  only  through 
unremitting  zeal  on  the  part  of  all  the  friends  of  the  cause,  and  a  systematic  effort 
to  secure  a  practical  recognition  of  its  importance  from  all  the  members  of  our 
congregations,  passing  by  not  even  the  little  ones  in  our  Sunday-schools. 

The  actual  additions  to  our  laboring  force  in  the  missionary  field  have  been,  of 
course,  few.  The  number  of  missionaries  under  appointment  is  also  small.  But 
while  a  wise  caution  is  thus  observed,  it  becomes  us  to  record  our  satisfaction  at 
the  decision  reached  by  the  American  Board,  that  while  every  thing  is  to  be  done 


83 

which  a  judicious  economy  demands,  no  retrenchment  is  to  be  undertaken  which 
can  in  any  wise  be  destructive  of  vital  interests.  Efforts  are  to  be  made  to  secure 
a  larger  cooperation  from  the  native  churches,  in  the  sujiport  of  their  pastors  and  of 
the  schools.  But  the  faith  and  conscience  of  God's  people  can  not  allow  actual 
retrogression.  The  reaction  would  be  disastrous.  Our  faith  would  become  weak 
and  timid.     And  nothing  is  left  us  but  cheerfully  and  hopefully  to  go  forward. 

The  successes  on  missionary  ground,  during  the  year,  call  for  the  liveliest  grati- 
tude. Among  the  Zulus,  in  South- Africa,  there  have  been  clear  indications  of  the 
special  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Twenty-six  members  have  been  added  to 
the  churches,  a  native  convert  has  been  set  apart  to  the  ministry,  and  the  people 
have  contributed  liberally  to  his  support.  The  government  is  friendly,  and  the 
blessings  of  civilization  and  education  are  better  appreciated  and  more  eagerly 
sought. 

In  the  several  missions  to  Turkey,  notwithstanding  serious  obstacles,  especially 
at  Constantinople,  there  has  been  encouraging  progress.  More  than  two  hundred 
have  been  received  into  the  churches.  The  schools  have  been  prosperous ;  and 
the  printing-presses  have  been  diligently  employed.  Thirty  years  ago,  the  Arme- 
nian field  was  spiritually  a  desert.  Now  the  standard  of  the  cross  is  planted  all 
over  the  land.  Dr.  Dwight  not  long  since  preached  in  Marash  to  nearly  fifteen 
hundred  people,  and  saw  forty  received  at  once  into  the  Church,  where,  six  years 
before,  no  church  existed,  and  twelve  years  before  not  a  Protestant  was  to  be 
found  in  the  community.     "  What  hath  God  wrought !" 

In  Syria,  the  brethren  have  pursued  their  work  with  trembling.  Yet  the  year 
has  been  one  of  advancement.  Seventy-five  thousand  starving  people,  sufferers 
through  the  terrible  atrocities  so  recently  enacted  in  their  land,  have  received  bread 
through  the  agency  of  the  missionaries,  who  have  thus  had  peculiar  and  advan- 
tageous opportunities  for  publishing  the  Gospel.  The  sales  of  the  Scriptures 
reached  during  the  year  to  more  than  four  thousand  copies,  nearly  ten  times  as 
many  as  were  sold  two  years  ago.  A  Greek  church  in  the  mountains  has  been 
turned  into  a  Protestant  house  of  worship.  And  the  people,  especially  in  South- 
ern Syria,  are  eager  for  privileges  which  it  is  not  as  yet  in  our  power  to  extend  to 
them. 

Among  the  Nestorians  the  most  interesting  feature  is  the  wonderful  liberality 
displayed  in  their  contributions  for  the  relief  of  the  Board.  The  spirit  they  have 
shown  is  instructive  to  our  own  churches,  and  gives  promise  of  great  spiritual  ad- 
vancement among  that  people. 

In  the  Mahratta  Mission,  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  new  members  have  been 
received  to  the  churches.  Of  these  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  fifteen  were 
children  of  native  converts,  and  had  been  baptized  in  infancy.  The  mission  were 
expecting  to  occupy  a  new  station  at  an  important  point,  through  the  benevolence 
of  the  English  magistrate  at  Ahmedmiggur,  who  is  erecting,  for  their  use,  a  house 
and  chapel  at  a  considerable  cost. 

A  recent  letter  from  one  of  the  missionaries  contains  the  gratifying  and  hopeful 
intelligence,  that  never  before  has  there  been  so  much  intercourse  with  the  higher 
castes,  and  so  great  an  influence  exercised  over  them  as  within  the  last  four  years. 

In  the  Madras  Mission,   the  weekly  union  prayer-meeting  continues  to  be  a 
feature  of  great  interest.     Educational  efforts  have  been  diminished  on  the  score 
of  economy.     The  press  has  teen  actively  and  efficiently  employed.     Dr.  Winslow 
3 


34 

remarks,  as  the  conviction  which  has  grown  up  in  his  mind  after  forty-one  years  of 
close  observation,  that  the  success  in  that  field  "  has  been  in  full  proportion  to  the 
means  employed  and  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome." 

The  Madura  Mission  affords  particular  encouragement.  It  occupies  a  territory 
whose  immense  population  gives  an  average  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
persons  to  the  care  of  each  of  ten  missionaries.  Provided  with  a  very  inadequate 
staff  of  laborers,  it  has  yet  been  largely  blessed  with  the  divine  favor.  Persecu- 
tion has  diminished ;  the  liberality  of  the  native  Christians  has  been  in  some  cases 
remarkably  exemplified ;  a  Home  Missionary  Society  is  in  operation ;  and  upon  a 
part  of  the  field,  the  showers  of  grace  that  have  so  signally  blessed  Tinnevelly 
have  begun  to  descend,  giving  promise  of  a  powerful  work  of  grace.  Intelligence 
lately  received,  and  not  yet  published,  strengthens  our  hopes.  Revivals  of  religion, 
with  clear  marks  of  genuineness,  have  blessed  several  portions  of  that  field,  and 
were  still  in  progress,  giving  increased  numbers  and  strength  to  the  churches. 
The  additions  to  the  churches  during  the  past  year  were  seventy-six,  and  the  total 
membership  reported  was  eleven  hundf  ed  and  nine. 

The  Ceylon  Mission  may  still  be  said  to  be  in  a  transition  state.  Nevertheless 
the  Lord  has  showed  it  tokens  of  good.  In  connection  with  the  services  of  the 
week  of  prayer,  a  new  religious  interest  was  awakened.  Benevolence  has  in- 
creased. And  in  the  face  of  great  difficulties  and  temptations,  the  spirit  of  the 
church-members  has  been  generally  steadfast,  giving  evidence  of  the  real  power 
of  the  Gospel  over  their  hearts. 

In  China,  the  hopes  that  have  at  times  been  cherished  in  connection  with  the 
political  disturbances  of  the  country,  have  received  little  or  no  encouragement. 
Yet  the  missions  have  made  favorable  progress ;  and  special  mention  needs  to  be 
made  of  the  establishment  of  a  new  station  at  Tientsin,  in  the  vicinity  of  Peking 
the  capital. 

From  no  quarter  is  the  intelligence  more  inspiriting  than  that  from  the  Sandwich 
Islands.  A  revival  of  religion,  such  as  .they  have  not  known  before  for  twenty 
years,  has  been  enjoyed,  and  nearly  fifteen  hundred  converts  have  been  added  to 
the  churches.  The  contributions  of  the  twenty-three  churches  for  the  year,  for 
supporting  and  extending  the  Gospel,  have  reached  the  sum  of  $21,000,  while 
their  own  missionary  work  has  been  creditably  sustained  in  the  Marquesas  Islands. 

Prom  the  Micronesian  Islands  we  have  welcome  news.  Despite  the  difficulties 
to  be  overcome,  and  the  persecutions  that  await  those  who  acknowledge  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  labors  of  the  missionaries  are  not  left  without  valuable  fruit.  On 
Ponape  or  Ascension  Island,  three  persons  of  high  position  have  recently  confessed 
Christ.  Their  conversion  can  not  but  have  an  important  influence.  The  mission- 
ary, in  a  season  of  personal  affliction,  received  such  tokens  of  sympathy  from  the 
people  as  indicate  a  growing  preparation  of  heart  for  the  lasting  impressions  of 
divine  truth. 

The  work  among  the  American  Indians  haa  exhibited  nothing  specially  remark- 
able, though  hopeful  indications  of  good  have  been  observed. 

We  can  not  close  this  Report,  without  reminding  you  that  our  Society  has  never 
been  convened  in  circumstances  so  extraordinary  as  the  present.  Internal  convul- 
sions, long  dimly  apprehended,  and  yet  scarcely  regarded  as  of  possible  occurrence, 
have  distracted  our  land,  and  dangers  of  alarming  magnitude  are  threatening  the 
stability  and  even  the  very  existence  of  our  political  institutions.  It  would  be  idle 
to  affirm  that  the  Church  has  not  suffered  in  her  interests.     Not  only  have  congre- 


35 

gations  been  weakened  by  depletions,  and  by  the  partial  paralysis  of  trade,  but  the 
zeal  of  the  whole  Church  has  seemed  to  bo  depressed,  or  directed  in  other  chan- 
nels, by  the  formidable  public  difficulties  which,  both  by  their  greatness  and  their 
novelty,  have  absorbed  attention. 

Yet  we  can  not  doubt,  that,  along  with  these  results,  influences  have  been  opera- 
tive of  a  most  salutary  kind.  We  believe  that  there  has  been  much  earnest  prayer 
to  God.  Our  people  have  been  learning  the  duty  of  self-sacrifice.  Discipline  is 
developing  principle.  And  apart  from  the  direct  benefits  of  chastisement,  may 
we  not  confidently  expect  that  recent  events  will  indelibly  impress  upon  every 
thoughtful  mind  the  conviction  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  as  a  living  Power,  is  the 
one  indispensable  element  of  national  virtue,  prosperity  and  happiness? 

It  will  be  but  natural,  therefore,  to  act  in  the  light  of  this  conviction,  in  refer- 
ence to  other  lands.  What  we  have  always  maintained  in  theory,  that  the  Word  of 
God  is  to  be  the  first  and  great  instrumentality  in  reaching,  civilizing,  and  saving 
the  ignorant  and  superstitious  —  the  pioneer  in  works  of  beneficence  and  love,  as 
indeed  it  includes  them  all  within  itself — this  we  shall  be  better  prepared  to  re- 
duce to  a  practical  principle  of  action,  and  its  stimulus  we  shall  feel  in  impelling 
us  to  send  the  Gospel,  at  whatever  cost,  where  there  are  yet  to  be  found  darkness 
and  guilt. 

The  sympathies  awakened  by  the  true  religion  are  large  and  generous.  Our 
national  peril,  appealing  so  mightily  to  our  patriotism,  and  so  effectively  we  trust, 
does  not  forbid  us  or  indispose  us  to  look  at  the  spiritual  necessities  of  the  heathen 
world.  Rather,  reminding  us  of  our  own  guilty  undervaluing  of  high  privileges, 
may  it  serve  to  point  out  the  way  of  duty  and  the  measure  of  our  responsibility, 
And  by  our  faithfulness  in  the  great  work  of  God  may  we  so  secure  his  blessing, 
as  that  our  political  Union  shall  be  cemented,  not  only,  but  that  also,  from  this 
then  happy  land,  the  streams  of  salvation  shall  flow  into  all  the  earth. 

Already,  a  great  work  has  been  accomplished  among  the  heathen.  We  shall  not 
comprehend  its  magnitude  until  we  can  estimate  the  importance  of  having  secured 
a  sure  place  for  the  entering  wedge  of  truth  that  is  to  shatter  the  rock  of  super- 
stition and  wickedness.  The  oak  is  in  the  acorn.  Redemption  for  the  world  is  in 
the  leaven  whose  first  workings  we  are  only  just  beholding.  Let  us  have  courage 
and  faith.  Let  us  remember  that  we  are  laboring  for  Jesus  Christ.  And  forget- 
ting not  that  by  fiery  trials  our  Christian  principles  are  now  being  tested,  let  us 
see  that  they  be  not  found  wanting.  Let  us  do  our  part  toward  making  a  history 
that  shall  prepare  the  way  for  a  more  joyous  jubilee,  and  furnish  richer  material 
for  a  memorial  volnme.  God's  Spirit  is  operating  with  us  and  for  us.  And  so, 
praying,  laboring  and  giving  —  as  we  shall  surely  do  the  last,  if  we  do  rightly  the 
first  —  our  eyes  shall  see,  if  not  the  complete  fulfilment  of  prophecy,  the  certain 
indications  that  the  time  is  at  hand  when  Christ  "  shall  have  dominion  from  sea  to 
sea,  and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

T.  RALSTON  SMITH, 

Corresponding  Secrktary. 


in  account  current  with  their  Treamrer,  ALMOX  MERWIN". 
From  August  1,  1860,  to  August    31,  ISGl. 

Cr. 
Allen-street  Presbyterian  Church,        .         .         .  $94  ■  68 

Broadway  Tabernacle, 158  42 

Central  Presbyterian  Church,      ....  510  33 

Congregation  of  Central  Presbyterian  Church,  Twenty- 
Sixth  street  and  Broadway,  ....       759  40 
Eleventh  Presbyterian  Church,.  .         .         .  130  00 
Fourteenth-street  Presbyterian  Church,         .         .     1038  16 

Of  which  for  the  debt,    ...  $50  00 

Fourth-avenue  Presbyterian  Church,      .         .         .       452  30 
First-street  "  "      .         .         .         .     31  93 

Harlem  "  "...         54  5*7 

Madison-square         "  *  "       .         .         .         3394  85 

Of  which  for  the  debt,      .  .         .       650  00 

Mercer-street  Presbyterian  Church,    .         .         .         2101  49 

Of  which  for  the  debt,       .         .         .       500  00 
Manhattan ville  Presbyterian  Church,  .         .         .     13  17 

North  "'  "  ...         82  80 

Seventh  "  "...  219  01 

Spring-street  "  "...         64  07 

Thirteenth-street     "  "...  103  37 

West  Presbyterian  Church,  .         .         .         .384  05 

Of  which"  for  the  debt,    .         .         .  200  00 

$10,192  6(t 

A  merchant  of  New- York  City,      ....     5300  00  6,300  00 

A  lady  "  "         .         .         .         .  700  00  700  00 

Sundry  donations  in  New- York  and  Brooklyn,         .     5316  01  5,316  01 

Of  which  for  the  debt,      ...  824  00 

BROOKLYN. 

Bedford  Congregational  Church, 
Clinton  Avenue  Congregational  Church, 
Church  of  the  Pilgrims, 

Of  which  for  the  debt,         .         .  $1000  OO 

Central  Congregational  Church, 
City  Park  Mission  Church, 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  .... 

Of  which  for  the  debt,        ...         75  00 
New-England  Congregational  Church, 
Plymouth  Congregational  Church, 

Of  which  for  the  debt,  .         .         1150  00 

Park  Presbyteiiian  Church,    , 
South 

"       Congregational  Church, 
Third  Presbyterian  Church, 
Westminster  Presbyterian  Church, 
Warren-street  Mission  Church,  . 
Williamsburgh  First  Presbyterian  Church, 

For  the  debt,         .         ."       .         .         .  110  22  $8,333  37 


5300 

00 

700  00 

5316 

01 

$46 

58 

1157 

52 

2945 

36 

22 

14 

44 

00 

1137  43 

120 

24 

1625 

19 

226 

30 

438 

54 

123 

49 

225 

00 

100 

00 

11 

36 

$29,841   98 


Contributions  for  the  debt,  included  in  this  amount,  $4,559  22 
"  from  churches  and  individuals,     .     .     25,282  76 


37 


Paid  for  carriage-hire, 

"        Snuo  copies  of  Dr.  Clarli's  Sermon, 


$150  58 


Entered  at  sundry  times  in  account  with  James  M. 
Gordon,  Treasurer  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  in- 
cludiug  sums  sent  by  contributors  directly  to 
liim. 29,091  40        29,091  40 

$29,841   98 


Xew-York,  August  31,  1801. 
Examined,  and  found  correct, 

L.  E.  Jackson. 


RECEIPTS  OF  THE   SOCIETY. 


The  following  statement  exhibits  the  receipts  of  the  Foreign  Missionary  Soeiet 
of  New-York  and  Brooklyn,  from  its  organization  in  182'7,  to  August,  18(51. 


ling  Aug.  31 

1827, 

.  $6,970  99 

'     " 

1828,      

3,407  20 

'     " 

1829, 

.   6,682  49 

i                    u 

issw,     

9,564  29 

" 

1831,    

.   7,597  23 

i                     u 

1832,       .    . 

9,984  91 

'     " 

1833, 

.  14,044  64 

<        a 

1834,       

7,635  57 

'   July  31, 

1835,    ..... 

.  13,401  83 

'     " 

1836,       

12,164  95 

i             li 

1837, 

.  17,107  34 

'     " 

1838,       

11,234  86 

" 

1839,    ..... 

.  13,796  61 

'     " 

1840,       

11,132  91 

u 

1841, 

.  12,447  64 

'       a 

1842,       .    .    .    .    . 

15,301^06 

a        u 

1843, 

.  13,390  01 

" 

1844,       

10,923  95 

.1        a 

1845, 

.  11,885  04 

>       a 

1846,       

7,974  42 

u 

1847, 

.  13,807  09 

u 

1848,       

11,598  39 

u       a 

1849,    ..... 

.  21,252  76 

" 

1850,       

13,241  69 

" 

1851, 

.  17,847  31 

1.       <,i 

1852,      

23,230  49 

u        u 

1853, 

.  22,173  26 

" 

1854,      

20,342  43 

u 

1865, 

.  18,106  29 

.>       u 

1856,      

21,648  94 

H.     ■                     il 

1857, 

.  28,914  41 

■   u 

1858,          .    .    .    . 

24,208  24 

" 

1859, 

.  20,308  62 

1860,       

28,013  09 

" 

1861,    

.  29,841  98 

$531,182  93 

LIST    OF    OFFICERS 

FOR    THE    TEAR    18G1. 


PRESIDEIVT. 

DAVID    HOADLEY. 


VICE-PRESIDEXTS. 


A.  E.  WETMORE,  I  WILLIAil  E.  DODGE, 

S.  B.  CHITTEXDEX,  ]  OLIVER  E.  WOOD. 

CORKESPONDIIVG    SECRETARY. 

Rev.  T.  RALSTON  SMITH. 

RECORDING    SECRETARY. 

ALMOX  MERWIN. 

TREASURER. 

ALMOX      MERWIX. 

DIRECTORS. 

AUcn-sireet  Presbyterian  Church,  George  Betts,  Joseph  W.  Lester. 

Broadway  Tabernacle,  W.  H.  Thomson,  m.d.,  L.  Ranney,  m.p. 

Central  Presbyterian  "  ...  .W.  S.  Dorr,  John  Short. 

Eleventh  Presbyterian  "  Alex.  McVet,  J.  H.  Bclen. 

Fourteenth-street     "  "  S.  H.  Wales,  J.  F.  Joy. 

Fourth-avemie        "                ""                   .  . .  .ALrREDC.PosT,M.D.,W.A."WnEELER. 
Harlem                   "                "                    .  . .  .E.  Ketchum,  James  Riker,  Jr. 
Mercer-street  "  "  W.  W.  Chester,  Richard  Bigelow, 

Thos.  Bond. 
Madison-square,     "  "  Geo.  D.  Phelps,  Z.  S.  Ely,  Charles 

Trask. 
Xorth                     "                "                   ...  .Charles  H.Ri'SHER,  John  Camerdon. 
Seventh  "  "  Charles   Merrill,  U.   B.  Littell, 

Jas.  W.  Bishop. 
Presbyterian  Church  cor.  Twenty-sixth 

street  mid  Broadway,  IIermon  Griffin,  F.  G.  Burnham. 


40 


First-street  Presbyterian  Church, 
Sprhig-street 
Thirteenth-street       '' 
West  " 

Bedford  Cong.  Church,  Brooklyn, 

Clinton-av.  "  " 

Church  of  the  Pilgrims,      " 

Central  Cong.  Church, 

Elm-place  "  " 

First  Presbyterian  "  " 

Plymouth  Cong.      "  " 

Park  Presbyterian  " 
South  "  " 

South  Cong.  "  " 

Third  Presb. 
Westminster  Presb. " 
Warreu-st.  Miss.     "  '' 

First  Presb.  Chtirch,  William^burgh, 
City  Park  Mission  Church, 


.John  Kerr. 

.John  Enpicott,  John  R.  Wilcox. 
.RuFus  S.  King,  George  W.  Beale. 
.A.  L.  Earle,  r."W.  Whittemore. 

.Edward  T.  Goodall. 

.A.  S.  Barnes,  Samuel  E.  Warner, 

Alfred  Smithers. 
.Sidney  Sanderson,    S.   F.   Phelps, 
Rich.  P.  Buck,  Ely  Mygatt,  Jr. 
.  .S.  B.  Cole. 

,  .F.  W.  Burke,  Chas.  B.  Williams. 
,  .Fisher  Howe,  David  Wesson,  Henry 

Ide. 
.  .J.   T.   Howard,   Arthur   Nichols, 

J.  B.  Hutchinson. 
.  .E.  A.  Lambert,  Wm.  W.  Wickes. 
,  .R.   F.   Howes,  A.    L.  Van   Buren, 

J.  Milton  Smith. 
.  .S.  N.  Datis,  Henry  Law. 
.  .W.  W.  HuRLBUT,  J.  C.  Halsey,  M.D. 
.  .George  Walsh,  Allen  L.  Bassett. 
.  .James  Hawkins. 

.  .J.  W.  Buckley,  Geo.  W.  Edwards. 
.  .Isaac  N.  Judson,  H.  C.  Perkins. 


